There's a scouting party coming in for the games. It's not exactly coming in under cover of darkness. Blame Twitter. Blame Facebook. It's become fairly widely known that Bruce McLeod, commissioner of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, is going to be in the house.

So, it's show-off time for Huntsville in front of McLeod and any others puck poobahs who may be joining him.

The Chargers, under new coach Kurt Kleinendorst, won a pair of exhibition games with Alabama last week, 12-1 and 10-0, with only a few hours' ice time together.

(Though it's not an NCAA-level program, Alabama coach Mike Quenneville does a superb job and the Frozen Tide is a terrific option for players to keep playing hockey. But for those who'd roll the clock all the way back to UAH's early days of club hockey, consider the difference in competition: This was a 22-1 margin posted by a Charger team that was 2-28-1 in NCAA play last year.)

If there is a message to the fans, it's a bit blunt, but it's not inappropriate.

It's put up or shut up time. For those who wailed in anger, who made pledges to help, who pleaded what a disgrace it was for an interim president to try to eliminate the hockey program, this is time to show you meant what you said.

You know the story: UAH hasn't been affiliated with a conference the last two seasons. It's nearly killed the program. Flatly, UAH director of athletics E.J. Brophy says, "Conference affiliation is essential to hockey's future."

The WCHA would be perfect for UAH -- and vice versa -- when the league shrinks after this season, losing teams to the Big 10.

If there is a message to McLeod and his colleagues, it would be this:

You have been here when UAH was a first-class program with conference affiliation. You have seen the support, the excitement, the talent level. You've felt the energy in the building. You know what a unique story Huntsville is in the hockey world.

You know what UAH and Huntsville can do for hockey.

You're the ones who can do so much for UAH and Huntsville, if you see fit.

If the fans do their part, here's hoping you will, too.

Contact Mark McCarter at mmccarter@al.com and follow him on Twitter @markmccarter

Updated at 3:46 p.m. to clarify admission is free to Friday night's game against Minnesota State.